Mobile communications devices, such as cellular telephones, laptop computers, personal digital assistants, and the like, have become an important part of modern life. Furthermore, cellular telephone usage has proliferated rapidly over the past decade. By some estimates, cellular telephone usage in the United States alone has grown from 34 million users in 1995 to over 200 million in 2005.
Mobile communications devices are becoming more powerful, with features keeping pace with technology development in communications equipment generally. For example, many of today's mobile communications devices contain more than one of the following features: phone service, internet browsing, email service, text messaging, a digital camera, audio recording, video recording, music storage and playback, gaming, interactive gaming, general computing functions, videoconferencing, webcasting, instant messaging, applications created for mobile devices, etc.
The rapid proliferation of cellular telephone usage may cause problems arising from the multiplicity of cellular telephones. For example, households may have multiple cellular telephones (e.g., a cellular telephone for one spouse and another cellular telephone for the other spouse). Furthermore, individuals may have more than one cellular telephone (e.g., a cellular telephone for work and a cellular telephone for personal usage).
Having multiple cellular telephones per household or per person may represent inefficient allocation of time or monetary resources. For example, an individual with multiple cellular telephones may have to pay for each phone. In addition, owning or using more than one cellular telephone may make it difficult to keep track of each phone and increase the risk of misplacing or losing a cellular telephone. If a user could get the same service from one mobile communications device, the user may be able to allocate the user's resources more efficiently.
Cellular telephone users may want the functionality of multiple devices, but cannot afford multiple devices. For example, a user may want one telephone for one use and another telephone for another use. However, the user may only be able to afford one device. In another example, a husband and wife may both want their own phone number, but may not be able to afford two devices.
Thus, there exists a need to provide the functionality of multiple devices in one mobile communications device. Although the present disclosure describes with particular reference and application to mobile communications devices, and in particular to cellular telephones, the claimed embodiments are not intended to be limited to mobile communications devices. The claimed embodiments are equally applicable to any device capable of performing as herein disclosed.